Reviews – Page 60 – 7th Level Music

Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Live in Brussels ’19

One of three live albums released by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard for Australian wildlife charities, Live in Brussels ’19 is a wild, heavy set drawing on a lot of material from Murder of the Universe, Nonagon Infinity, Infest the Rats’ Nest (their newest album at the time of this tour – October 2019), and Fishing for Fishies.

Opener “Evil Star” is a fuzzy instrumental appetizer to the meaty, heavy “Venusian 2.” The crowd is in full battle mode when they arrive at the sludgy “Superbug.” Lead singer Stu Mackenzie‘s vocals sound shouted to the moon and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Lucas Harwood‘s bass rooting the tune in a solid stoner metal groove. “The Lord of Lightning” begins as a neat psychedelic jam that gets the crowd clapping and grows into the powerful story of a wizard fighting a monster.

“Altered Beast IV” has some of Michael Cavanaugh and Eric Moore‘s best double drumming. The crowd goes wild for “People Vultures” – and rightly so, since it seems to be played at double the normal speed of the album cut. The groove of “This Thing” is undeniable, and Ambrose Kenny-Smith‘s harmonica work on it is always top-notch.

“Sense” slows things down to a happy vibe. “The Wheel” might be the trippiest song on the album. Kenny-Smith’s vocals are warped, and Mackenzie, Cook Craig, and Joey Walker‘s guitars move around each other like cats high on catnip. “The Bird Song” is always a delight – live or otherwise. The band always sounds happy while playing it, and you can’t help but partake in their joy.

“Down the Sink” has a fun new wave vibe to it. “Work This Time” floats the audience about five feet off the hall floor with its hazy, meditative feel. Plus, the guitar solo on it is great. The band then gets the crowd roaring again with “Robot Stop.” The opening chords alone make the audience frantic before it explodes into chill-inducing mania. “Big Fig Wasp” continues the chaos with its microtonal riffs. “Gamma Knife” comes at you like a whole swarm of the aforementioned wasps.

The closer, “Float Along – Fill Your Lungs,” is jaw-dropping. It’s a stunning piece of psychedelia that floats along for over twelve minutes and probably left the Belgian audience euphoric.

It’s another great slice of the King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard pie and does what any good live album should do – make you want to see them live as soon as possible.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (2013)

Part-psychedelia, part-punk, part-garage rock, Oh Sees’ excellent 2013 album Floating Coffin is a wild race and a heavy trip. I mean, just check out that cover.

The album gets off to a great start with the instant mosh pit-inducing “I Come from the Mountain.” I’ve lost track of how many bodies I’ve collided with in pits during this song at their live shows. Frontman John Dwyer sings about the frustrations of relationships (“No one likes heartache or the kind, everyone’s a problem sometimes.”) while throwing down fierce guitar riffs. “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster” makes you want to pogo no matter where you are, so be careful if you’re listening to it while driving or operating heavy machinery.

The title track has a manic energy to it that is difficult to describe but instantly recognizable if you’ve heard any other Oh Sees records. I’m pretty sure it’s a song about death (Go figure.) as Dwyer sings about lying down, drinking up the sky, and seeing God. “No Spell” brings in some psychedelic jamming (and wild drumming) for Dwyer and his crew to stretch their muscles.

The driving force of “Strawberries 1 + 2” is damn near unstoppable, with only heavy cymbal crashes and floor tom beats to break up the relentless wall of guitar in it. Songs like “Maze Fancier,” with lyrics like “A grave inside a cave, a maze inside a maze,” make me want to run a Dungeons and Dragons game for John Dwyer. The song has a great bass groove throughout it to boot.

Weird, wobbly synths start “Night Crawler” before orc army drumming comes in to shake us up and Dwyer’s echoing vocals contribute further to the haze drifting around our heads. “Sweets Helicopter” sounds like the name of a lost 1970’s live-action Saturday morning kids TV show, but it another song about death…with soaring solos from Dwyer that almost sound like bagpipes. “Tunnel Time” seems to be about a serial killer stuffing bodies under his house or a caretaker of some kind of tomb (“Can’t remember the faces or even the names. I’ve been cleaning up bodies. They all look the same…to me.”). The mixture of guitar and synths is great in this track. The closer, “Minotaur,” is about being stuck in the corporate rat race maze (“I get sick at my work everyday. There is no cure but to stay. Stay away without pay and the horns on my header are getting thicker with each day.”).

It’s a fun, loud, bold record perfect for getting your blood pumping and your head spinning. If you need something to rev you up while you’re stuck in self-isolation and cleaning your house, here you go.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Public Practice – Gentle Grip

The cover art of Public Practice‘s debut full-length album, Gentle Grip, is intriguing. It’s an abstract / pop art image of a woman’s head, eyes closed, lips and teeth parted in either a breathy sigh or ready for an embrace…and there’s that hand. A right hand with fingernails painted to match the woman’s lipstick has a (gentle?) grip on the back of where her neck would be. Is it the woman’s hand, giving herself a soothing neck massage? Or is it someone else’s, pushing her forward to something she wants but was hesitant to embrace without a little help?

I might be making too much of it, but the image is as intriguing as the album. The opening synth-bass and echoed guitars of “Moon” immediately hurl you into Blade Runner territory while singer / lyricist Samantha York sings of leaving this world for better things, but thinking things might not be better in the off-world colonies after all. Drummer Scott Rosenthal mixes hypnotic floor tom beats with wild full-kit drum fills to jar you out of the mesmerism that York can expertly cast upon the unwary (or, often, more than willing) listener.

The contrasting upbeat pace of “Cities” is a delightful surprise, reflecting the bustle of city life as York sings about the dark sides of some places needing to be brought to light. “Disposable” was one of the first songs released from Public Practice (in October 2019) – and with good reason. Drew Citron‘s bass thumps in your blood and Vince McClelland‘s guitar work is like a shuriken spinning toward you with multiple points. York sings about being careful what you wish for and how “You have it or you don’t.”

The tempo of “Each Other” is wonderfully bumpy and jagged. The whole feel of “Underneath” is undeniably sexy thanks to Citron’s excellent bass line and the vocal mix she and York. Rosenthal puts down a slick Blondie-like beat and McClelland’s guitar work is deceptively tight. “See You When I Want To” is a fun track – as the whole thing, including York’s lyrics, was improvised. “My Head” would’ve been a disco classic in another era. The song’s about creating a dance club in your head to tune out the 24-hour barrage of noise coming at us, so it’s perfect.

The first single off Gentle Grip, “Compromised,” is about the rough road of moral choices. “You don’t want to live a lie, you don’t want to pick a side, you don’t want to compromise. You don’t want to live a life, but it’s easy,” York sings while the rest of the band just cooks throughout the whole track. “I thought this would all fade away. Didn’t know you would stay so angry. I thought it was just a passing phase. Sure we could crawl to an understanding,” York, puzzled, sings on “Understanding” – a sharp post-punk track with McClelland’s guitar ranting like a drunk on a street corner (and I mean that in the best possible sense – McClelland’s mini-solos sound like mini-stories within the story of York’s lyrics.).

In a clever twist, the song “Leave Me Alone” might be the sexiest song on the record. The groove of it slinks around the room like a femme fatale convincing a hard-boiled detective to take the case of her missing husband. It’s the album cover in aural form. McClelland saves some of this wildest guitar work for “How I Like It” – which he also sings. It sounds like he stuck a Tesla coil in his guitar. “Hesitation,” the album’s closer, on the other hand, repeats the same three notes and creates a post-punk (and slightly goth?) banger.

There aren’t a lot of bands out there willing to experiment like Public Practice, which is a shame because the time is ripe for experimentation. We need intriguing records like Gentle Grip that nudge us toward things we want (not material things, mind you, but things like healthy relationships, self-care, and joy) when we need that guidance the most.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: The Wants – Container

Before COVID-19 floated across the country and shut down music venues and tours everywhere, I was lucky enough to catch The Wants on tour with BODEGA. Two of The Wants, guitarist / lead vocalist Madison Velding-VanDam and bassist / vocalist Heather Elle, are BODEGA members. I got to speak with Wants drummer Jason Gates after the show and he told me they’d been working on their full-length debut, Container, for a long while and were proud of it.

As they should be, because it’s a sharp post-punk / new wave / no wave album that everyone should hear. Opening instrumental track “Ramp” starts off with what sounds like half-melted tapes being played backwards before it adds synthwave layers and instantly intriguing guitar licks. The title track has Velding-VanDam singing about compressing emotion, desire, and even human contact into something manageable or easily hidden (“Watch him, pull him apart, can he fit in a container?”). The song now in the wake of self-isolation, which put us all in our own containers / homes against our will, is doubly powerful (and it was already massive with Velding-VanDam’s brash riffs, Elle’s thudding bass, and Gates’ killer beat).

After another brief instrumental (“Machine Room”), Velding-VanDam again reveals himself as a bit of a prophet on “Fear My Society” as he sings, “I don’t need my society. I can feel my society bringing me down.” Elle’s backing vocals add a haunted layer to the track, and the whole thing reminds me of early 1990’s Brian Eno recordings. Lead single “The Motor” (which seems to be a song about working well under pressure – perhaps in the bedroom) has some of Gates’ sharpest chops and Velding-VanDam’s guitar seems to come at your from at least four different directions.

I love that The Wants (and any band) include instrumental tracks, especially ones like the three-and-a-half minute “Aluminum” – a weird, yet catchy soundscape that goes well with the following cut – “Ape Trap” (a song about being caught somewhere and refusing to let go of what’s keeping you miserable in that space). “I’m craving science fiction, so I’ll no longer do your dishes while I beat my head on the walls of my ape trap,” Velding-VanDam sings in perhaps my favorite line on the album (and Elle’s wicked bass curls around you like a purring cat).

The hissing and thumping “Waiting Room” could easily slide into the score of John Carpenter film. Elle’s opening bass on “Clearly a Crisis” gets your whole body moving while Velding-VanDam sings about being wary of moving forward in a relationship (“There’s clearly a crisis. This attraction’s inescapable, so I hide myself…”). The sparse breakdown about halfway through the track and the subsequent shoegaze tidal wave afterward are outstanding. “Nuclear Party” has a great early B-52’s sound to it (especially the way Velding-VanDam’s guitar seems to stumble around the room). Elle’s bass and Gates’ drums on “Hydra” are dance floor-ready and Velding-VanDam’s vocals remind me of Cy Curnin‘s (of The Fixx) vocal style. The album ends with another long, and somewhat creepy, instrumental – “Voltage.”

Container is an impressive debut that is not a BODEGA spin-off. Both bands are outstanding in their own right, and both bands tackle some similar subjects in their lyrics (the often bizarre natures of relationships, sex, and technology, for example), but The Wants are just as happy to stand back in the shadows and watch the party as they are to jump into the middle of it.

Keep your mind open.

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Kestrels’ new single “Grey and Blue” features J. Mascis and a wall of shoegaze sound.

On Dream or Don’t Dream, Halifax’s Kestrels live out a guitar freak’s wildest fantasies. The supercharged shoegaze rockers’ fourth full-length album features spellbinding mixing from John Agnello(Sonic Youth, Alvvays, Kurt Vile, Cyndi Lauper) and mastering engineer Greg Calbi (David Bowie, Lou Reed, Television, Blondie). Together, they constructed a towering devotional to tone with blazing riffs, powerhouse drums, and swooning hooks emerging from an enveloping haze.

WATCH: Kestrels’ “Grey and Blue” feat. Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis video on YouTube

The first single, “Grey and Blue” is a fuzzy, reverb drenched power-pop track featuring soaring solos from Dinosaur Jr‘s J Mascis. Guitarist and vocalist Chad Peck explained, “”Grey and Blue” is a song about being carefully and uncharacteristically optimistic and vulnerable. This song came at the end of a really rough period in my life and it captures the nervous excitement of that time. My thinking tends to get narrow and shallow during bad periods, and when I feel things start to change it’s almost overwhelming; I’m not sure if I should trust it, but I have to push forward anyway. It’s a good feeling when you meet someone who makes you feel like your eyes can open a little wider and makes the echos skip through your brain.”

Dream Or Don’t Dream was largely written on the sofa of Ash‘s Tim Wheeler, but Wheeler is not the only guitar aficionado that Peck has in his contact list. “J Mascis plays two solos on this song. It’s still weird to say that out loud,” Peck explains. “We opened for Dinosaur Jr at this wild secret show in Amherst, MA. I met Luisa, J’s wife, and his longtime engineer Justin Pizzoferrato there. Luisa invited us over to their place and J gave us a tour of his studio and just kept handing me different guitars to try out (“This was what I used when I recorded “Out There”…). It was surreal. When we were tracking this song, Justin mentioned that it would be a good song for J to play on and he set it up for me. Thanks Justin! Thanks J! He did 7 takes and they are all incredible. Maybe I’ll release the other 6 takes someday.”

Dream Or Don’t Dream is out on July 10th on Darla Records. It is available for pre-order here.

Keep your mind open.

[I dream of you subscribing.]

[Thanks to Hive Mind PR.]

Rewind Review: Minami Deutsch – With Dim Light (2018)

“They’re a Japanese band that plays krautrock,” is essentially the first description I read of Minami Deutsch after I heard they were going to play the 2019 Levitation Music Festival. I was immediately intrigued by this notion and decided to look up some music by the band. I heard a couple tracks from their 2018 album With Dim Light and was intrigued further. Their blend of krautrock rhythms and Japanese psychedelic music was a neat combination. Seeing them live at Levitation 2019 was the deal-sealer. They put on one my favorite performances of the festival weekend and I knew I had to hear With Dim Light in its entirety. I learned they are far more than “a Japanese band that plays krautrock.”

Keita Ise‘s opening bass line on “Concrete Ocean” is an unexpected, but more-than-welcome post-punk element that drips into a wicked drum lick and guitars by Kyotaro Miula and Taku Idemoto that incorporate jazz and surf elements. “Tangled Yarn” adds some shoegaze to their 1960’s psychedelia, with Miula’s vocals being reverbed almost to the back of the room and his guitar echoing off the walls to hit you from every angle.

“Tunnel” was the first Minami Deutsch song I ever heard and was the cause of my desire to find more. The instant urgency of the guitar and beat hook you from the outset. It’s like the anticipation before a chase that breaks into a wild scene running through a dark city street, a foggy nightclub, a backroom mahjong game, a modern art gallery, and an aquarium. “I’ve Seen a U.F.O.” has some of Ise’s fuzziest bass alongside slightly muted drums. Miula’s vocals are barely perceptible, preferring to highlight the bass, drums, and guitars instead of the other way around.

The slow, acoustic start to “Bitter Moon” is a wild contrast to the psychedelic freakout of the previous track, but it’s more of a slow drift at the end of a race than an abrupt stomping of the brake. The closer, “Don’t Wanna Go Back,” has a cool, bouncy guitar riff all the way through it while Ise roots the track with an unstoppable groove and the high-hat / snare work is as crisp as an oyster cracker.

With Dim Light is more than krautrock. It’s krautrock, shoegaze, psychedelia, surf rock, and even bits of garage rock. It’s also worth your time. I hope they release more music soon.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Here Lies Man – self-titled (2017)

The debut, self-titled album by Here Lies Man from 2017 was unlike a lot of rock that came before it. Their music was described with a simple question, “What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?” It’s a question to make you ask, “Wait…What?” Once you hear HLM, however, you think, “Yep, this is what it would sound like.”

The massive opening riffs of the album on “When I Come To” (the only lyrics in the song, by the way, apart from “Oh God! Wake up!”) grab you by the neck and shake you, and the organ stabs only serve to make you quake further. The African rhythms are immediately apparent and are downright infectious. Those beats roll like a bubbling river on “I Stand Alone.” The drum breakdown halfway through the track is outstanding.

“Eyes of the Law” brings the funky organ to the forefront, and “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” covers one of HLM‘s favorite topics – death (“Your life ain’t goin’ nowhere…You ain’t goin’ nowhere.”). “Letting Go” grooves so hard it will stop you in your tracks as HLM sings about leaving this world to find better things beyond, embracing the beauty of impermanence. “Let go or be dragged,” as the Zen proverb says. The mostly instrumental “So Far Away” is a trippy track, and the African rhythms are back in full swing on “Belt of the Sun” (and check out those wicked organ riffs!). The echoing organ stabs, Superfly-like bass, chant-like drums, and fuzzed-out guitar on the closing title track all combine for a killer ending to a killer debut.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Live in Paris ’19

Recorded at L’Olympia in Paris, France October 14, 2019, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s Live in Paris ’19 is one of three live albums they released for animal welfare charities during the massive wildfires sweeping Australia (many of which, by the way, are still burning). All proceeds from these albums go to these charities, and all three were released well before KGATLW‘s “official” live album – Chunky Shrapnel (review coming soon).

You can tell right away that the Parisian crowd is ready to go nuts from the opening notes. The show starts with the instrumental “Evil Star” before breaking into a sprint with “Venusian 2” and “Perihelion” from Infest the Rats’ Nest. “Perihelion” hits the hardest of the two. “Crumbling Castle” is the second longest track on the album (at nearly nine minutes), and the crowd never stops cheering for it the entire time. It tears into “The Fourth Colour” so fast it almost makes your head spin.

“Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet” and “The Castle in the Air” are a great pairing to slow things down just a touch before the rocking “Muddy Water.” “People Vultures” is a crowd favorite (as is anything from Nonagon Infinity, really) and sounds like it’s almost at double the normal speed. The swing of “Mr. Beat” is always fun to hear live. Hearing the crowd sing along to Stu Mackenzie‘s opening flute on “Hot Water” is delightful.

They’re grooving ands swinging on “This Thing.” “Billabong Valley” is always a crowd favorite as Ambrose Kenny-Smith takes over on lead vocals to sing a tale of a gunman. “Nuclear Fusion” is a personal favorite because of the cool Middle Eastern microtonal groove of the whole thing. “Anoxia,” the always rocking “All Is Known,” and the always hip-moving “Boogieman Sam” follow, and the show wraps up with a dive back into thrash metal with another personal favorite – “Mars for the Rich” and then over twelve minutes of the wild, swirling, mind-melting “Am I in Heaven?” – which contains bits of “Altered Beast” and “Cyboogie” as well.

You might think that after this whirlwind of an album is finished – just like any show by these wacky fellas.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Ohmme – Fantasize Your Ghost

Chicago’s Ohmme have released one of the more intriguing albums of 2020 so far – Fantasize Your Ghost. The title brings to mind the idea of planning for the afterlife and settling affairs now while you can. It’s also a bit of a fun idea – thinking about who and / or where you would haunt if you were a ghost (if you had the choice, of course).

The weird, melting guitars of opening track “Flood Your Gut” let you know that the album will be an interesting journey, and the double vocals of Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart cement that fact as they sing about someone whose ego won’t let them see the forest for the trees when it comes to a relationship (“The tallest person that I ever met couldn’t even reach your head…Your whole vision’s not enough.”). “Selling Candy” is a sweet tribute to growing up in their Chicago neighborhood, sneaking out of the house, and daring to cross the big street to buy a hot dog from the grumpy hot dog vendor – and the Nirvana-like guitar chords on it are no slouches.

The fat, fuzzy bass of “Ghost” is great, as is the thumping chorus of Cunningham and Stewart singing about being “sick of looking at the stupid look on your face” while the object of their annoyance is preoccupied with bogus metaphysical journeys. The guitar solo on this track is nothing short of wild, and the opening lyric is nothing short of Zen (“You are the product of a happenstance.”). “The Limit” has Ohmme singing about a relationship coming to an end (“If human nature makes you a stranger, I can’t give you time if I can’t afford it.”).

“Spell It Out” has a similar theme as the use the image of dirty dishes in the sink and dust on the shelves as a metaphor for a relationship that has grown dull from lack of attention. “Twitch” tackles the light-hearted topic of existence (“Everything bores me and everything hurts. Is this what it means to be a human machine?”). The song builds to a lovely psychedelic haze before a quick fade-out. The following track, “3 2 4 3,” takes on another light-hearted subject – aging (“Looked in the mirror the other day, caught my reflection. My mouth had moved a different way. The muscles were straining…Different today but I’m the same.”). The sharp bass line under the bubbling vocals brings the song up to another level.

“Some Kind of Calm” is a lovely song about trying to quiet one’s mind amid a world of constant entertainment and noise. The instrumental “Sturgeon Moon” wouldn’t be out of place on some early 1980’s industrial album with its odd timing, boiler room guitars, and “falling down the stairs” percussion. The closer, “After All,” is a pretty track about being okay with getting away from the hustle and bustle of the world, and other people. It’s especially fitting in these times of self-isolation as they sing, “Seek your cocoon” over and over. We’ve all been forced to live in and re-examine our cocoons and lives. Is that necessarily a bad thing?

This album certainly isn’t a bad thing. Give it a spin and get lost in it.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: The Well – Samsara (2014)

I’m going to make a bold statement. The Well‘s debut album, Samsara, came out six years ago and might have changed the course of Texas doom metal, and perhaps doom metal everywhere.

Sure, there have been and still are many fine doom bands putting out excellent records influenced by Black Sabbath, early Pink Floyd, King Diamond, Blue Cheer, and Blue Oyster Cult, but what separates those bands from being great doom bands is that they sometimes forget to ease back a bit on all the “Old Ones from a dark hole in space are going to kill us all” stuff and just groove.

The Well (Lisa Alley – bass and vocals, Ian Graham – guitar and vocals, Jason Sullivan – drums) excel at the former and are off the chain in regards to the latter. Samsara‘s opener, “I Bring the Light,” tells a tale of some sort of magic for about three minutes before it explodes into a jaw-dropping sonic blitz that must’ve made everyone who heard it live for the first time stop dead in their tracks or spit out their Lone Star in disbelief.

“I felt the sun upon my face and began to run,” they sing on “Trespass” – a tale of shamans and encroaching dead things suitable for creating a Dungeons and Dragons game based on its lyrics. Speaking of such lyrics, another quest for your adventuring party could start from the opening ones of “Eternal Well” (“I saw a vision in the swirling mist, the stones are bleeding to the lion’s fist.”). Alley’s bass sounds like the heartbeat of a blood-spattered ogre throughout it. Graham’s riffs on “Refuge” sound simple at first but are deceptively wicked when you pay attention.

“Mortal Bones” begins with a sample of Rod Serling talking about ancient Egyptian temples before Graham’s guitar and Sullivan’s thunderous drum fills hit us like a sandstorm. The groove that kicks in near the three-minute mark is a prime example of what I mentioned in the second paragraph of this review. The Well love to groove and began leading the charge to help doom gets its groove back with this album.

Their cover of Pink Floyd’s “Lucifer Sam” is a fun addition, and is fuzzier than the subject of the song. “Dragon Snort” bellows and roars like some kind of 11 hit dice monster, and the weird breakdown of guitar distortion and feedback is disorienting at first, then hypnotizing, and then shaken by Alley and Sullivan’s anvil-heavy thuds. The closer, “1000 Lies,” dissolves like a melting black candle around the two-minute mark into a smoky trip of Alley’s reverb-heavy vocals, Graham’s oozing guitars, and Sullivan’s hypnotic cymbals and then kicks back into head-banging riffs before you get lost in the fog.

The title of Samsara is fitting for The Well’s first record. “Samsara” is the Sanskrit word for the cycle of death and rebirth. The Well started from the fragments of other bands and was reborn into something new, and it feels like they’re turning doom metal into something new as well.

Keep your mind open.

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